The Red Shirts (Spanish: Camisas Rojas) were a paramilitary organization, existing in the 1930s, founded by the atheist[12] and anti-Catholic anticlerical Governor of Tabasco, Mexico, Tomás Garrido Canabal, during his second term.

[22][23][24] Tabasco has been called a "socialist tyranny" by Martin C. Needler, Dean of the School of International Studies at the University of the Pacific in California.

[29] The Red Shirts practiced socialist marriages, and two Red Shirt members, José Correa and Victoria Ley, pronounced their own vows: Before society, before Comrade Tomas Garrido Canabal, and all present, we declare that we have united in matrimony by our express will[30]And another two members sent out invitations: J. Felix Gutierrez and Amalia Gonzalez have the honor to invite you to the civil and socialist matrimonial act, to take place at 21 o' clock the 17th of this month at 305 Gomez Farias Street.

[13] On December 30, 1934, approximately sixty Red Shirts from Tabasco, who had been organizing anti-religious demonstrations including the questioning of God's existence, were involved in a confrontation outside of San Juan Bautista church in Mexico City that killed five Catholics who were shot,[31] and one red shirt was beaten to death by the crowd.

[33][31][34] In 1935, after he ordered his Red Shirts to kill Catholic activists in Mexico City who were seeking to return to Tabasco, Garrido was forced to step down and into exile in Costa Rica.